A site for me to make my favorite TV Western end the way it should have. Enjoy my scribblings. =)
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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Starting Over, Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Lu shifted on his pallet in front of the
fire for the hundredth time. Even once
Jimmy and Teaspoon had taken over guard duty, he hadn’t been able to stop the
million and one thoughts chasing themselves through his brain long enough to
really get any rest. Exhausted, yet
unable to sleep, he opened his eyes as the first rays of morning daylight
peeked through the blue calico curtains on Rachel’s windows.

Stretching, he started to yawn, then
suddenly froze when he heard Lydia’s and little Carl’s voices coming from the
kitchen. There’d been so much movement
through the parlor where he was bedded down that he hadn’t realized the last
set of footsteps he’d heard had belonged to them.

A choked back childish sob speared its
way into his heart.

“What is it, honey?” he heard Lydia ask,
her voice full of motherly concern. “Did
you hurt yourself?”

Lu could easily imagine little Carl violently
shaking his head from side to side, mouth pursed shut in a silent “No!” when
there was no verbal response and Lydia began speaking again.

“Then what is it, darlin’? What’s the matter?”

Lu closed his eyes, envisioning the
scene in his head. He’d seen it so many
times over the last five years. Lydia
would be on her knees, peering into Carl’s eyes. She’d reach out and tenderly brush his hair
back from his face while speaking to him, maybe even pulling him into her arms
and hugging him close, depending on how upset he really was. She was such a good mother. It’s what attracted him the most to her, what
had made him think a marriage between them might work.

After a couple of hiccups, Carl spoke
haltingly. “Is… Is Lu still my second Pa?”

Lu sat up, readying himself to run into
the kitchen and pull the boy into his embrace, but slowed his forward motion
when he heard Lydia’s response.

“But…. but… he and you ain’t married,”
Carl objected. “How can he be my Pa if
he ain’t married to ya?”

“Aren’t, not ain’t,” Lydia gently
corrected. The sound of chairs scraping
across the wooden kitchen floor indicated she’d taken a seat at the table next
to Carl. “And he’ll be your Pa the same
as he’s always been your Pa. He’ll be
there for you, answer your questions, take you fishing and riding, teach you
how to use that rifle, how to be a man.”

“But…” Carl started to object, but Lydia
kept right on talking.

“Why, just look at Mr. Hunter. He’s Lu’s Pa, more or less, and they aren’t
related. Why, they haven’t even lived in
the same state for almost a decade. But
he’s still his Pa.”

Sounding better, more sure of himself,
but still wondering, Carl asked, “But, if you and Lu don’t get married, what
are we goin’ ta do? Are we goin’ ta move
back to Tennessee? I don’t wanna move
back to Tennessee. I like it here,
Ma. But we don’t have a farm or house
here.”

Lydia sighed, pulling the child into a
tighter hug, resting her chin on his head for a moment. “I don’t know, son. I just don’t know. We’ll figure something out, I promise.”

“And I’ll be there to help, just like
always,” Lu said from the kitchen door.
He grinned as Carl pulled out of his mother’s arms and raced across the
room to Lu’s side, where he wrapped both arms and both legs around Lu’s
leg. Picking the boy up underneath his
arms, Lu hugged him tight and walked over to take a seat next to Lydia at the
table. Reaching out he covered her hand
with his. “These folks’re family, even
if I can’t remember ‘em and y’all don’t know ‘em. And family sticks together. They’ll help, too.”

**********

“Mama, are we gonna stay here?” Mary
Kate asked, chattering a mile a minute as she walked down the stairs at her
mother’s side. “I like it here. Grampa Teaspoon’s awful funny! And Uncle Buck tells mighty fine stories
about some tricking guy named Sen… Sendeh.
Oooh, can I learn to shoot like Uncle Jimmy? Who’s Mr. Mallory? Is he here to help us?”

Lou laughed at her daughter’s non-stop
litany of questions, coming so fast and furious Lou couldn’t have answered any
of them, even if she’d tried. But she
was used to her daughter’s need to talk, all the time, about anything that came
into her mind and just moved on through the living room.

“Oooh, look, Carl’s up! I like Carl.
He plays with me.”

Lou winced at the longing tone in Mary
Kate’s voice. She’d often lacked for
friends due to Lou’s job and wandering lifestyle and had often begged for
siblings, something Lou hadn’t obligingly provided. Pulling her attention away from her daughter,
Lou looked through the kitchen door and came to an abrupt halt.

Kid was there, Carl snuggled in his lap,
arms wrapped around Kid’s neck and, worst of all, Kid had reached out and was
cradling that woman’s hand in his, smiling at her. He was her husband, goldangit! Even if he didn’t have the decency to
remember it.

Lou’s good mood ruined, she followed her
daughter’s lead into the kitchen.

“Louise!” Kid said in warm greeting, standing up at her
entrance.

“Oh, sit down, Kid! Ya oughta know better’n ta act like that ‘round
me,” she snapped, brushing rudely past him toward the sink and cupboards along
the western wall. She began roughly
opening cupboards until she found a pot and some oats, muttering to herself the
entire time. Speaking only to Mary Kate,
she muttered, “Looks like it’s oatmeal for breakfast, baby. I can’t find anything else.”

Mary Kate looked questioningly from her
mother to this tall man, Mr. Mallory, who’s eyes followed every move her mother
made. She wondered what was going on
between them. She’d never seen her
mother act like this before. She could
be stubborn and definitely had a short temper, but this? This was unprecedented in Mary Kate’s short
life.

“I’ll… I’ll… ah…. go check on the stock,”
Lu finally said. Turning toward the
door, he grabbed his hat and shoved it on his head. He paused at the entrance a moment to take
one last look at his wife, still muttering to herself as she poured water from
a bucket into the pot and added salt.

**********

“I just don’t know what to do, Cyrus,”
Lu found himself pouring his problems out to the horses as he fed and watered
them. “She’s my wife. Everyone agrees on that much. I guess we loved each other once… but… I just
don’t know.”

“You love her, I can tell.”

Lu spun around to find Lydia standing
behind him.

“What are you talking about? How can I love her? I barely know her.”

“I’ve seen the way you are around
her. When she’s there, all your
attention is on her. All of it, Lu. The rest of us… I… just seem to
disappear. Trust me, you love her.”

“But, what about you? What about my responsibilities, the promises
I made?”

Lydia walked up to him and placed a hand
on his shoulder, smiling up into his eyes.
“I’ve been in love, Lu. Everyone
should be in love at least once in their lives.
You and I? That wasn’t love. It was convenience, for both of us. Go after her.
Fall in love with her, all over again.
Make it work. Be happy.”

Lu smiled down at Lydia. Then reached out and enfolded her in his
arms.

“Sorry,” Lou muttered, flopping down
into a chair at the table. “I just….”
she let the sentence drop, not sure what to say.

“You’re confused, mixed up and
completely overwhelmed?”

“That about sums it up.”

“Listen, why don’t you take a little
time for yourself,” Rachel suggested, turning away from the stove with a pot of
bubbling oatmeal in her hands. Moving
toward the table, she began dishing it up.
“Take a walk, take a ride, think things through. You need to get your head back on straight.”

“But Mary Kate…” Lou started to protest.

Rachel half-glared at her over her nose,
“You really think I can’t handle one sweet little girl? And all of her uncles are here, ready to
defend her at a moment’s notice. Now,
git!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Lou answered meekly,
heading for the door. As she walked
across the yard, she thought over the changes her life had undergone over the
last 24 hours. She should be ecstatic
that Kid was alive, and there was a part of her that was. But so much had changed. She hadn’t realized just how angry she was at
him for leaving, for dying, until she’d seen him in town yesterday. And then there was the added complication of
his fiancée, Lydia, and her son. She was
a petite, refined, southern lady, the type Kid had always had a hankering for
before. The type Lou had never really
been. So much had changed in their lives
over the last decade. Maybe they should
just leave the past in the past and get on with their lives. She and Mary Kate were used to being on their
own. They could continue to manage
without Kid just fine.

Reaching the barn, she pulled open the
big doors, eager to saddle a horse and ride out. Riding had always helped clear her mind. Looking up, she saw Kid and Lydia pulling out
of an embrace, smiling at each other just like a couple in love. What was left of Lou’s heart seemed to
crumble into shards. He’d obviously made
his choice. Turning, she began to walk
away, toward the prairie to nurse her wounded spirit in private. Head down, hands in her pockets, kicking at
the occasional stone as she passed, she never heard Kid’s voice calling after
her.

The Author

Who am I? A Hispanic broadcast journalist, current host of Kansas Week on KPTS, and certified high school teacher, a writer and lifelong lover of all things historical, particularly the Old West. I'm married to a wonderful man from Germany and we have a 17 yr old son. We have two rescued cats and a rescued pooch, who thinks she's a 70 lb lapdog. I'm prone to talk about anything and everything that catches my interest.